HILE IT’S DIFFICULT to choose a favorite sacred text, the antiphon “Ubi Cáritas et Amor” has been one of my favorites before I even knew from whence it came. I first sang it while surrounded by Lutherans: in Luther College’s Nordic Choir while on a Midwest Tour my junior year. It’s very difficult, even for Lutheran choral programs, to escape their Catholic origins—especially when said choral programs want to sing beautiful music and gorgeous texts. (I jest…or do I?) Thankfully, that tour actually traveled through my home Archdiocese of Milwaukee and we performed a concert at the beautiful Basilica of Saint Josephat with the Nordic Choir, under the baton of Dr. Allen Hightower, singing Z. Randall Stroop’s “Cáritas et Amor” (a piece the composer annually conducted at the Vatican for over a decade). Unfortunately, none of the scholae cantorum I currently conduct are SSATBB—although I’ll continue to pray for that someday!
Repertoire for Womens’ Choirs • What to sing during Offertory on Holy Thursday? That is where Christoph Dalitz’s lovely chant/polyphonic arrangement comes into play:
* PDF Download • UBI CARITAS (SSAA)
—With polyphonic versets by Christoph Dalitz.
Dalitz Is Responsive • My Schola Immaculata sang Christoph Dalitz’s SSAA arrangement of the text on Holy Thursday (and when Milwaukee’s new Archbishop, Most Rev’d Jeffrey Grob, celebrated his first Mass at my parish a few weeks later). This fully volunteer schola did a marvelous job considering that when done in its entirety, the piece is over 5 minutes in length and Mass is not a ‘controlled’ environment (i.e. the action of the Mass is occurring, children are crying, and so on). I have some other arrangements on my list for someday, but Mr. Dalitz’s is a gem. He is also very kind and responsive to emailing. I’ve done a couple other pieces from his rather substantial choral library, although this is unfortunately the only one I remembered to record. I’m making plans for my Schola Immaculata to sing one of his versions of the MAGNIFICAT, but I prefer slightly different version to work for my women’s schola than what was available at the time. He says at the bottom of his website to email him if anyone needed something transposed … so I did, he promptly responded, and already posted the new edition to his website.
